On This Week’s Meditation Prompts
The Church asks us to dwell in several times at once. The woven crown of thorns is the kingly crown, the cross of death is the throne of glory. Looking from Calvary forward into the reign of Christ, or looking back from the heavenly gathering to the lonely crucible, we carry the narrative from beginning to end and end to beginning in one simultaneous but layered moment in our souls. The church year lets us tell the story from apocalypse to apocalypse, from the devastating end of the world to the triumphant end of time.
This Sunday lets us rest in this second ending, following “the Lamb” in that blessed Kingdom of light and fulfillment (meditation one). All our desires culminate in the images of what this kingdom of the Christ must be like (meditation two). The Christian year may end with the triumph of Christ, but in fact, we help bring about the reign of Christ with good works in a suffering world in very real present time (meditation three.)
Enjoy this week’s challenge.
And enjoy a blessed feast of the Reign of Christ. - Suzanne
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Meditation One
drawn toward the kingdom
Where do you pasture your sheep, O Good Shepherd, you who carry on your shoulders the whole flock? For it is but one sheep, this entire human race whom you lift onto your shoulders. Show me the place where there are green pastures, let me know restful waters, lead me out to nourishing grass and call me by name so that I can hear your voice, for I am your own sheep. And through that voice calling me, give me eternal life.
“Tell me, you whom my soul loves.” This is how I address you, because your true name is above all other names; it is unutterable and incomprehensible to all rational creatures. And so the name I use for you is simply the statement of my soul’s love for you, …
Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa c.394 from commentary on the Song of Songs
O how glorious is the kingdom wherein the Saints rejoice with Christ: arrayed in white robes, they follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth.
-Antiphon on Psalms, First Vespers, All Saints
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| Vision of the Throne of the Lord, Paris Apocalypse, French Miniaturist c.1400 |
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Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
-Revelation 1:4b-8
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Collect for Proper 29
(Reign of Christ)
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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| Christ Pantocrator, Romanesque Painter, Catalan, c.1180 |
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Meditation Two
what the kingdom is like
The Kingdom of God is greater than all report, better than all praise of it, more manifold than every conceivable glory. The Kingdom of God is so full of light, peace, charity, wisdom, glory, honesty, sweetness, loving-kindness and every unspeakable and unutterable good, that it can neither be described nor envisioned by the mind. The citizens of heaven are the just and the angels, whose king is Almighty God. In the Kingdom of God, nothing is desired that may not be found. In the Kingdom of God is nothing that does not delight and satisfy. In the eternal Kingdom there shall be life without death, truth without falsehood, and happiness without a shadow of unrest or change.
-Patrick c.387-493 sermon for Advent quoted in Gail Ramshaw’s Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary
As truly as we shall be in the bliss of God without end, praising and thanking him, so truly have we been in God’s love and knowledge in endless purpose from without beginning.
In this love without beginning, God created us. In the same love, God protects us and does not allow us to be hurt in a way that might decrease our bliss. Therefore, when the judgment is given and we are all brought up above, we shall clearly see in God the mysteries which are now hidden from us.
Then shall none of us be moved to say in any manner, "Lord, if it had been so, it would have been well." But we shall all say with one voice, "Lord, blessed may you be, because it is so, it is well. Now we truly see that everything is done as it was ordained by you before anything was made."
-Julian of Norwich 1342- c1416, trans. Colledge and Walsh
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Meditation Three
down-to-earth kingdom
If we are not interested in the minds, the feelings, the hopes, fears, sorrows and joys of everyone with whom we come in contact, we are not interested in Christ. Whatever we do to anyone, we do to him. If we are impatient with the mental suffering, the doubting, the questioning, and the wrestling with the angel of the more sensitive minds, then we are impatient with the mind of Christ bleeding under the crown of thorns. If we shrink from the broken lives of sinners, then we draw away from Christ fallen and crushed under his cross. If we will not go to the sick and the poor to help them, we will not help Christ.
How shall we educate ourselves to face other people’s sufferings? First, we can start with the physical. …
…None of us is so poor that we cannot find another in greater need than ourself. It takes far greater skill to attend to a broken heart than it does to attend to a broken limb.
-Caryll Houselander 1901-1949 The Comforting of Christ (1947) Quoted in Mystics, Visionaries & Prophets: A Historical Anthology of Women’s Spiritual Writings, Shawn Madigan, C.S.J., editor
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The Last Word
When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking of Christ.
-Ambrose of Milan c.337/340 - 397
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